418 HOW TO MAKE THE FARM PAY. 



the ewe and lamb should be enclosed in one of those pens. If 

 in the dark and away from the others, all the better. If a lamb 

 dies, take off the skin from the body and wrap it around 

 another lamb and the mother will adopt it. For some time 

 after birth the dam recognizes its own lamb only by the smell 



Docking Lambs is best done when two weeks old. The 

 lamb is held on a block, the skin of the tail is shoved towards 

 the body, and the tail is cut with a chisel. It only needs to be 

 left long enough to cover the anus and vagina. If the lamb 

 bleeds too much, tie a cord tightly around the tail for ten or 

 twelve hours. If the weather is warm and the flies are about, 

 rub a mixture of tar, butter, and turpentine on the parts. 

 When docking, is a good time to count the sexes and put a 

 little mark on the males. Castratiois" should be done be- 

 tween the second and sixth week. The operation should be 

 done carefully, the spermatic cord cut, not jerked out, and tar, 

 butter, and turpentine applied to the parts. "Washing Sheep 

 is under many circumstances dangerous and inconvenient. 

 Wherever it is so, we advise shearing without washing. Wash- 

 ing is not wholly safe before the middle of June, in the latitude 

 of Pennsylvania, and as it is often desirable to shear long 

 before that time, the sheep must either go without or be 

 washed in chilling cold water. When washed, the object 

 usually is to see how little of the dirt can be got out and yet 

 have the fleece sell for washed. The unwashed wool of a 

 clean, careful breeder is worth more, often, than the half 

 washed wool of careless ones. Any man who buys wool 

 ought to be able to judge pretty accurately as regards shrink- 

 age. In washing wool the wool should be wet and left to soak 

 for a little while, then the sheep are dipped and the wool 

 squeezed, then dipped once more, or put under a fall of water 

 When the sheep are brought to the washing the hoofs will be 



